In the initial state of the art, after an ice cream sandwich was wrapped, it was placed on a conveyor belt with other wrapped ice cream sandwiches and serially moved along on the conveyor belt. The conveyor belt terminated at a dead plate onto which the ice cream sandwiches were deposited. As each wrapped ice cream sandwich was deposited on the dead plate, it would push the ice cream sandwiches already on the dead plate further therealong. The wrapped ice cream sandwiches would then be pushed off the dead plate onto a pair of pivoted wing plates. When a predetermined number of wrapped ice cream sandwiches, for example, three or four, were pushed onto the wing plates, the conveyor operation was stopped, and the wing plates were opened up so as to drop the wrapped ice cream sandwiches thereon onto a platform, the dropped ice cream sandwiches then being pushed by a pusher bar into a box for packaging.
However, the above-described arrangement provided distinct disadvantages. In the first place, the distance that the wrapped ice cream sandwiches had to travel from the dead plate onto the wing plates was an extra 12 to 14 inches. Because of such distance, the amount of time necessary for collating the wrapped ice cream sandwiches would add cost and time to the operation and/or mis-operation. In addition, when the wing plates opened to drop the wrapped ice cream sandwiches onto the lower platform, the wrapped ice cream sandwiches would sometimes tilt or deflect or would get caught on the wing plates, which would cause further delay in the operation and/or mis-operation. A third problem that resulted with such arrangement was that a four and one-half inch clearance between the lower platform and the surface of the closed wing plates was generally necessary in order to provide clearance for the opening of the wing plates. Because the ice cream sandwiches dropped such a great distance, there was more apt to be problems with misalignment and the like, and there was further delay involved. Lastly, there was a further delay in the operation since the conveyor belt could not begin movement to push more wrapped ice cream sandwiches onto the wing plate until the wing plates had closed.
Accordingly, the above-described arrangement provided distinct disadvantages in the collating of wrapped ice cream sandwiches for packaging.
An effort was made to overcome the disadvantages of the above-described arrangement in U.S. Pat. No. 5,042,638 to Price. Price discloses an ice cream sandwich collating apparatus comprising a substantially flat plate; conveying means for conveying the ice cream sandwiches in a first direction onto the flat plate; detector means for detecting when a predetermined number of the ice cream sandwiches have been conveyed onto the flat plate; an infeed chute positioned below the flat plate; pusher means for pushing the predetermined number of ice cream sandwiches in a second direction from the flat plate onto the infeed chute so as to collate the pushed ice cream sandwiches, the second direction being substantially transverse to the first direction; mounting means for freely pivotally mounting the pusher means above the flat plate for movement in the second direction between a start position and an end position; and control means for controlling the movement of the pusher means from the start position to the end position so as to move the ice cream sandwiches from the flat plate onto the infeed chute, and for controlling the movement of the pusher means back from the end position to the start position in a manner to permit the pusher means to be deflected so as not to obstruct the conveyance of subsequent incoming ice cream sandwiches onto the flat plate during movement of the pusher means from the end position to the start position.
While Price addressed several of the disadvantages of the above-described arrangement, a disadvantage still remains with respect to transferring the ice cream sandwiches from the flat plate onto the infeed chute. As previously discussed, the dropping of the ice cream sandwiches can result in misalignment and the like. Also, damage may occur in the sandwiches if the dropping force is too great.
Accordingly, it is desirable to overcome the disadvantage of the present commercial method which includes transferring the ice cream sandwiches from the flat plate onto the infeed chute.